Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Will FCPX run better with the ati 5870 compared to 4870?

P

polyethyleneguy

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 7, 2005
79
0
Florida
I have a Mac Pro 2009 with a 3.33 Hex and 24GB ram. It has an older ATI 4870. I am wondering if I upgrade to the newer ATI 5870, would I see much of an improvement in FCPX or After Effects?

I know games will see a pretty good boost in FPS, but I really don't game that much.

Thanks for any help. I tried searching this topic already and couldn't find any info on it.
 
Not enough to be worth the cost of the upgrade. Wait for the next generation, then you have enough of a performance upgrade to be worth the price.
 
The 5870 is a great card and is still enough for most people's needs. If you can't wait to see what comes out next you'll notice a good performance boost from it.
 
I guess if the increase in performance is negligible, I'll just wait for the next batch of Mac Pro video cards (hopefully there will be such a thing).
I just didn't know if the 5870 would be a huge improvement over the 4870 because of FCPX using open CL and benefiting more from the GPU.
 
Zwhaler said:
Some links to check out:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1010017/ (check post #4)

http://www.barefeats.com/wst10g6.html

http://www.barefeats.com/nehal15.html
Click to expand...

I really appreciate you trying to help. I actually read these before I did my original posting. These links explain the performance gain while gaming mostly (with a few exceptions).

I am looking for "real-world" tests comparing specifically the 4870 and 5870 using Final Cut Pro X and After Effects. This has been pretty impossible to find a good answer. I know the 5870 will probably be a better card, but how much better? Does FCPX utilize the GPU in a way to show a significant difference? There's got to be someone who has a Mac Pro and uses FCPX that has also upgraded from the 4870 to a 5870. This person will have my answer :D
 
polyethyleneguy said:
I really appreciate you trying to help. I actually read these before I did my original posting. These links explain the performance gain while gaming mostly (with a few exceptions).

I am looking for "real-world" tests comparing specifically the 4870 and 5870 using Final Cut Pro X and After Effects. This has been pretty impossible to find a good answer. I know the 5870 will probably be a better card, but how much better? Does FCPX utilize the GPU in a way to show a significant difference? There's got to be someone who has a Mac Pro and uses FCPX that has also upgraded from the 4870 to a 5870. This person will have my answer :D
Click to expand...
I'm close...
I had a 4870 when I was using After Effects CS3. Then I got a 5870, but started using CS5. I have FCP X, but don't like it and never use it.
The 5870 works great in CS5.
 
What about a 5770 compared to 5870? Barefeats shows decent speed increases...but I already bought the 5770 and it arrives tomorrow. Trying to decide if I should send it back without opening and get the 5870 instead. However, the new 7970 or whatever they're called look like they could come out soon, and I'm wondering if they'll work in a 2009 MacPro 2.93 8-core. If so I can just live with what I have until those come out...thoughts?
 
kylepro88 said:
What about a 5770 compared to 5870? Barefeats shows decent speed increases...but I already bought the 5770 and it arrives tomorrow. Trying to decide if I should send it back without opening and get the 5870 instead. However, the new 7970 or whatever they're called look like they could come out soon, and I'm wondering if they'll work in a 2009 MacPro 2.93 8-core. If so I can just live with what I have until those come out...thoughts?
Click to expand...

5870 is quite a bit faster than the 5770. If you aren't doing heavy video work or running a display larger than 24" then the 5770 is fine, but for that "extra" the 5870 gives a nice boost.
 
Hmm after looking at other articles I decided to snag a 5870 used online. It's a worthy upgrade from the 5770 I think, especially since I plan to use FCPX a bit more in the future which really soars with OpenCL. I'm probably going to do a render test to see just how much it helps on export...maybe it'll improve it a little as opposed to just playback and such?
 
I would be interested to see your results after testing it out.
I decided to hold off and see what/if new cards come out.
I've also been looking into the nVidia cards that are now being supported via the drivers they released not long ago. I wonder if FCPX would play nicely with a 580 or 570?
 
Final Cut Pro X is written to take advantage of OpenCL specifically, so ATI cards are your best bet similar to the Nvidia's advantage in the case of Adobe Premiere. Honestly, for those hoping for Apple's switch back to Nvidia, I call BS...because that would totally negate all the work put in to rewrite FCP to take advantage of OpenCL for GPU Acceleration with effects and output rendering.

I'll do tests...I'm interested as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back